Hotels and the pandemic

[Gsmith88]

Hello all,

I suspect many of us have been punting during the pandemic (safely of course) but has anyone done an incall where you have had to go to a hotel?

I have my first booking in a year and a half where the WG is in a hotel and I am a bit nervous as I don't know what to expect. Are you able to just walk straight through these days or do you need to do the whole COVID check in etc? Are hotels more restricted in terms of access?

I know this is a generic question and all hotels are likely different but has anyone noticed a huge change in the way many hotels operate? The incall I have later is a Holiday Inn if anyone knows anything specific about them.

[simon07]

Hi
I have found that getting tips from the WG on the reception area, where the lift and stairs are helps. The current state is great as I wear a mask and stick a mobile in my ear and talk anything in it. Walk past as if you own the place. If stopped, make out you are meeting a friend. keep an eye out for hotel car registrations and if you have to pay. Sometimes I park outside and walk to the place. It is the WG interest that you get there.

[Kelgon85]

I went to an incall at a hotel on Saturday. Travelodge London Docklands. The good thing about that place is that the stairs are right opposite the front entrance. So I just went in, straight up the stairs and into the lifts. I think it helped that the one receptionist was talking to someone checking in. But yes, ask the WG beforehand or check the place out online. I look it up in google image search or, as bizarre as it may seem, on YouTube. A surprising amount of people review hotels and upload the video on YouTube, with them essentially touring the place. You never know, type in the hotel in YouTube and see if someone has reviewed it. Its helped me quite a few times in the past. 

[NickyBobby]

Google Street View or hotel review sites like TripAdvisor can be useful for finding out the internal layout of the hotel before you get there. Or just ask the WG for directions to the lifts if you can’t work it out.

[Henchmanlet95]

Only been to a hotel once since the pandemic started and that was in October 2020 just before the 2nd lockdown started.

Pretty much just walked in as usual, up to the WG's  door number and no one seem me or said anything tbh.

[petermisc]

I have stayed in a number of hotels around the country recently, and it is a very mixed picture.  Most hotels seem to have some sort of track and trace scheme in place, such as requiring contact details for the second person, but how rigidly (if at all) they enforce it is very much up to the hotel and staff on duty.

In London, without all the foreign tourists and coach tours, the hotels are generally very quiet.  Once-busy reception areas that you could walk through anonymously are now deserted, with receptionists sitting there twiddling their thumbs - no way will you get in un-noticed.  Outside London, hotels seem to be much busier, particularly in areas popular with staycationers.

As others have said, walk in confidently as though you are a guest going back to your room.  Helps if you can get some info on where to go, where the lifts are, and so on, as it is not at all obvious in some hotels.  If you walk in and obviously haven't got a clue where to go then it will be obvious that you are not a guest, which could raise track-and-trace type questions.

However, the bottom-line is that no WG is going to operate from a hotel where her clients can't get to her. 

[Kelgon85]

However, the bottom-line is that no WG is going to operate from a hotel where her clients can't get to her.

Yeah. That's exactly what mine said to me when I messaged her about my concerns with the way things are now and getting into hotels. She said "I'll make it easy for you". So WGs obviously know what's what regarding that.